Official RP Thread: The Evolutionist's Stone (3)

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Lara's House, Chicago==

"What the--?" Lara's eyes were wide when she answered the door, "So, do you guys, like, replicate, when you go out? Good thing we have Adam here..."

The new supers came in, and for a second, Des' crew marveled at how much bigger the place was on the inside than it was on the outside. David seemed rightfully less-than-interested. Meanwhile, Fitz hurried downstairs with Pierce and Ivan. Four supers were out of place, and Fitz was determined to figure out who.

"Watch out, one of 'em has snake powers--" Fitz called back to Ivan and Pierce, before stopping in the middle of the stairs, "Oh, um, you guys are back? Fine, then, but...Ah thought everybody told us their powers. There's people here Ah d'not recognize...a geokinetic, a summoner, a snake mimic and...an unpredictable!"

Des smirked, "Yeah, man, peep game..."

Fitz hurried the rest of the way down the stairs and inspected Des a little closer than would be considered comfortable, "D'ya know what yer capable of?!"

Des looked to his boys and then back to Fitz.

"Yeah, I know what I can do. I can be good luck, I can be bad luck. Depends on who I use it on...but can't nobody do it to ME, though--ay, yo, fareal, you up too close...back back." Des pushed Fitz gently. Fitz stood back, gaining control of his inner nerd and introduced himself. Ivan and Pierce did the same, and Des' crew did as well. But after, Fitz went back to inspecting Des like a science experiment.

"Ya know, if ya like, ya can stay for dinner. Cookie just made somethin' fer the others, but Ah'm sure she has enough fer all of ya..."

The boys looked at one another, and then to Fitz, asking in unison, "You got weed?"

"Hehe" Ivan chuckled, "I'm gonna like these guys..."

They were led upstairs to be introduced to the others, while the new supers went to have dinner with Cookie and Ginger. Ivan grabbed David by the back of the neck, and led him upstairs behind everyone else. to be dealt with shortly.

When the three new urban supers made their way up the stairs, naturally, Charisma caught sight of them first. Des and crew were awestruck by the optic assassin, and crowded around her like dogs in heat.

The hazel-eyed beauty put a mischievous smile on his face, "Ay, mama, you lookin' good as hell..."

Charisma did no more than look at the three friends and scoff. She parted them like the Red Sea, and strutted downstairs, chuckling to herself, with not so much as a condescending glance over her shoulder.

Pierce knocked on the door, greeted by Tessa.

"Who have we here...?"

Pierce motioned to each of them respectively, "Fits says Des is an Unpredictable, and a subconscious Probability Manipulator. Snake is a Snake Mimic. And that guy is...Trick. Summoner. Doesn't say much."

Tessa looked at each of them, and shook their hands, "I take it Collin and Jeremy had a reason for bringing you here."

"Oh, the surfer dude and the cowboy?" Des replied, "Yeah...they said y'all had a idea how to take EC down. And they made the deal sweeter wit some weed...Speakin' o' which, where is--?"

"Greenhouse is out back." Adam spoke up from his computer.

"Ay, yo, man, that Halo ain't even OUT yet!" Snake remarked, rushing over and leaning over Adam's seat, "Where you got that from?"

"His mind. This floor, the third and forth are all made by him, and so is all the stuff in 'em."

Trick looked at the other computer screen, which Fitz had used to pull up his 'Superhuman_Phenomena.doc', "This can tell me 'bout my power?"

"Yep. Fitz typed it up himself. You know, he can help you learn more about the uses of your abilities." Tessa eyed one of the high-tech phones Adam had made, "I mean, if you want."

Des looked around, "What, you want us to stay here? Wit y'all?"

"Well, it's not like it's a big stretch of the imagination..."

The boys stepped aside for another mini conference. What could there be to lose? They technically wouldn't be leaving home, and yet, thanks to Adam's capabilities, they would be able to travel anywhere in the world they pleased. What's more, they would be in on the plan to take down the Raven Lady. And what could it hurt? After all, they would be the equivalent of superheroes, and would be able to save Chicago their way.

Des stepped back up to Tessa, "I don't know...this ain't some kinda trick, right? I mean, we don't gotta do nothin' stupid..."

"What, like wear those goofy superhero costumes? Or say some kinda superhero oath? No. But you DID have to be subject to my mental assessment, and since I'm a telepath, that evaluation is already over. You all passed."

"Dayum!" Des cracked a smile, "You read minds, huh?"

"It's better than strip-searching you..." She smirked.

"Well, now, I don't know about that, Blondie..." He blushed a bit, showing his dimples even more.

Pierce thought to warn Des that she was taken, but was quickly reminded she could take care of herself.

"You'd be willing to be subject to a strip-search by Ivan, cavity check included?" Tessa rebutted, gesturing to the four-armed muscleman, face serious as a heart attack, as he pulled latex gloves on each meaty finger.

"Uh, nah, I mean--well, um..." Des tried nervously to stumble out of that conversation and sound cool, but Tessa had him at a loss for words, "Girl, are we in or what?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Des and his friends had been shown the future site of their rooms, and escorted downstairs to dinner, and so now would be time to take care of David, who had been greatly neutralized as a threat due to lack of earth to manipulate.

The War Room left only to he and Ivan made things significantly less pleasant than they already were. And they would only get worse from here.

"You said your last name was Gorak?" Ivan asked from behind David, who remained bound in a chair.

"I'm not tellin' you anything..." He struggled in the seat.

"Well, that's too bad fer you, mate...'cause this ain't the place to plead the fifth. My subordinates gave you to me, sayin' you was a threat, meaning you ain't got no rights..." Ivan looked over to the room across the hall, and then back to David.

David looked around to see what Ivan was doing, but Ivan quickly made sure that his fear was confirmed. He grabbed the back of the chair and dragged it across the hall, into the Training Room, which would also serve as a room for Vicious when it wasn't in use by the other supers. He trudged all the way into the center of the room, and set it down.

David looked around, a bit confused, but otherwise, unfazed. Though, he had yet to realize just how much danger he was in.

The room had been set to its Jungle setting, and was slightly humid. The air was muggy, slightly misty, similar to the Amazon right after a long rain. Flies and mosquitoes buzzed about, and a small river ran through it, leading from the base of a twenty-foot-tall waterfall, to a twenty-foot-across pool. There were rocks of various sizes, and trees upright and felled. In the distance, there came a guttural snarl.

"Wha--?"

"Her name's Lyssa, but we call her Vicious...she's an Animal Mimic." Ivan chuckled deviously, "You ever seen a super what could charge through a strongman like an elephant? Or strike like a king cobra? Or do a death-roll like a croc? She ain't no joke..."

David struggled in his seat again, "Y-you can't be serious...you're bluffing."

But Vicious prowled about on the rocks and through the trees on all fours. She menaced him fiercely, and hissed like a big cat.

"Oh..." Ivan paused, "Forgot to mention. She ain't real nice around new folks...'specially hates when they invade her room. Ain't that right, Crazy-Face?"

Vicious snarled like a jaguar, and bounded up into one of the trees. She grabbed the central branch and shook it like a chimpanzee, felling the tree. David jumped.

"Yeah, I bet she'd have some real fun goin' all piranha on you. That sound fun?"

David gulped, as Vicious drew nearer and nearer, doing a perfect vocal imitation of a rattlesnake rattle.

"Or maybe you wanna know how black mamba venom feels..." Ivan continued, looking at David's visibly frightened face now, "No? Then how's about she snap her hands like a bullet shrimp pincer? She does that right next to your ear, and--"

"Okay! Okay! What do you want from me?! I'll give you anything! Just tell 'er to back off!" He struggled frantically in the chair as she put a hand on either knee, and brought her snarling face a foot from his. Upon hearing that, the animal snarling ceased; she licked his cheek once, and bounded back off into the jungle setup which she had chosen for her room. David's body released tension, but he continued to pant heavily.

Now Ivan would get his answers.

"Good. Now I got yer attention, I want answers. You know who I am?"

"No."

Ivan menaced him. He'd slap the kid, but he didn't want to risk breaking his neck, "A'right, then why'd you attack Snipe?"

"How was I supposed to know he was your friend? If I knew he was friends with a bunch of supers, I woulda let him bad-mouth me all he wanted..."

"He said you started it, and you initiated blows..."

"I-I did...", David admitted, "But, well, my dad got hurt recently. It put him totally outta commission. Hell, he's in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the neck down...some jerk named Jack Ryder. HE'S the one I really want to make pay."

Ivan sighed, and put his hand on David's shoulder, "Look, kid. You gotta let that go. He's a bad guy...a Warlord. He had to be deposed."

David looked back to Ivan angrily, "No! He's a good guy! He took over to impose some much-needed discipline. Things were terrible before he took over."

"Oh, really?" Ivan retorted, "Then I guess you got a say on the Evolutionist's Stone, too. He helped keep it a secret."

David stopped struggling, "Wha-what are you talking about? There's no such thing as the--"

"We found it, kid. Me, Jack, and our friends Ben, Byne and Wayne." Ivan scoffed, "And we had to face your dad to get it."

David's eyes widened, "Then, that means you...you helped them take my father down, too!"

David wriggled to the side with a quick, jerking motion, and a pillar of earth jutted up and knocked Ivan in his gut, sending him sailing backward. David fell over to the floor, still bound.

Vicious heard the attack, and immediately ran out to see if Ivan was okay. Seeing he had been harmed, she bounded across the room like a cheetah and leaped up, catching and dodging off of each stone pillar David erected from the ground, and finally tackled him to the ground. Her jaws unhinged like a snake and caught him by the neck, before locking like a pitbull. She shook him violently, rending through his binds, and finally rending his chest, stomach and arms, before Ivan called out to her to stop.

He got up, a bit dazed, but otherwise okay.

"Stop! He's got every right to be mad at us. We hurt his dad up real bad." He grabbed David by both arms and stood him up, "I'd be mad, too, if I was him."

"So, you-you're letting me go?" David looked up. It seemed awfully big of the strongman, especially after he acted out so rashly. But the illusion was soon shattered.

"Hell NO, I ain't lettin' you go, ya little snot! You obviously got your s***y attitude from your dad! Time to put you in a room where you ain't got no access to earth to control." Ivan dialed Adam on his new phone.

"Um...yush?" Adam answered with a mouth full of food.

"We got us a hostile prisoner..."

"PRISONER?!" David exclaimed, as Ivan hoisted him over his shoulder.

"Alright, I'm on it. Be up in a sec." Adam responded. Click.

"That's right, Junior. You're going to the Holdin' Room. Then I get some more o' Cookie's home cookin'..."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Camphrey Manor==

Overlady Vandal-Savage's soldiers neared Camphrey Manor with deathly silence. From every side, the soldiers, super and normal alike, moved like phantoms. Either cloaked by Camouflage, Invisibility or Cloaking, or otherwise concealed, they barely disturbed the daily rat race of busy Chicago.

Clad in very inconspicuous, albeit fortified, armor, they looked at best like military corrections officers.

Ella looked out over her town as they approached. She failed to see any of them, despite what would have been obvious to a more strategic military mind. She saw only pitiful, inferior beings. Not a one of them capable of seeing the world as she saw it. Not one of them capable of empathizing with her sentiments of discipline and order. If not for her, she truly believed they would fall into chaos.

It was why she valued her capability so. With just a word, large men and important men and dangerous men cowered before her like frightened young boys. With a touch, women would collapse to the floor, paralyzed with mortal terror, and incapable of doing anything other than sobbing hysterically.

She could perceive the deepest depths of the traumatized human psyche, the very essence of the tortured human mind. That which made the strongest, meanest, most brave men tremble. That which crept in the darkest corners of their minds, and kept them up at night. The distressing specters which clung to them and held them back from otherwise productive lives. These things she had conquered ages ago, but others still wrestled with them, and she loved to exploit their weaknesses at every turn.

Her very presence twisted sleeping minds, turning lovely dreams into horrid nightmares, teeming with wicked creatures, and frightening situations which would drive a mortal man to madness. Comfort became uneasiness; uneasiness became a nagging dread; dread became fear; fear became phobia, and finally mass hysteria.

Not to mention her willingness to torture and kill all those who opposed her. It came so easy. None resisted her. Those who didn't succumb to her fear, succumbed to her malice. And likely her malice outdid her fear any day.

With that in mind, she turned to Manuela who just came in the room.

"Mistress, you've got bad news. You know how you sent supers to invade Mistress Lil's land?"

"Yes?"

"Seems like she had the same idea." Manuela walked behind the Overlady as she approached the video monitor.

"That's...that's impossible. Okay, she wants to play rough. Tell Bailey to turn on the psi-panels. They want a bloodbath...? They'll get one."

"And what shall we do about the rebels? They seem to have disappeared from our records. They checked out of Manning Tower, but since then, no airplane, to train, no subway...nothing was tapped as transporting identified rebels."

Ella continued down the hall, "They aren't my concern right now. Those are clearly not rebel forces. A bunch of ragtag supers with a bare semblance of a plan? I'll handle Lillith's forces for now."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Camphrey Manor==

When the opposing forces finally reached the perimeter of the grim and gothic manor, they stopped short. Perhaps the gravity of the dangerous situation at hand had truly sunken in at last. Or perhaps it had sunken in already, and they no longer had strength to pretend they were unafraid.

No guards were visible. The security cameras didn't respond to their movements, and a few technopaths sensed that they had been deliberately turned off. The sky grew yet cloudier overhead, and storm clouds rolled in. Thunder rumbled, but neither lightning nor rain were visible. The mist around the foot of the house was like unto a horror movie graveyard, and creatures of the night taunted and jeered in the distance.

An owl perched atop the manor, and black birds settled atop the manor gates like shadowy judges of the damned. The forces were unsure if the birds were ravens, crows or blackbirds, but one thing they knew for certain: the hateful birds watched them intently, like gladiators destined to die at the paws of a tiger. Like lambs to the slaughter. They were undisturbed in their ominous observance, even when a creeped-out cadet tossed a rock at them. They simply moved aside, eying them all with unbroken menace.

The men and women shivered, except for the one or two immune to Camphey's phobic effects. Though, in time, she would handle them as well. She would handle them all.

A hulking brute of a man came trudging through the ranks, and stood in front of them.

"All right, men! This is what we came here for! Just bear in mind...this b***h is tricky. You don't know what she's got up her sleeve. She's been said to make grown men s**t their pants. That is why I chose YOU. The best of the best at what you do. Hardened by the sight of war and death. Some of you criminals, some of you decorated warriors. But all of you patriots. Am I wrong?"

"NO SIR!"

"No sir..." Ella echoed from the second floor with a smirk, "Wouldn't want to make your superiors look bad by being defeated by li'l ole me, would you?"

She retired to her tower...things were about to get interesting. She sat demurely and took a seat , concentrating on all the walls, which would now reverberate her psychic powers through the entire house, thanks to those rather handy psi panels. And with that, she began.

She closed her eyes, and felt for fear. For doubt, for worry. For panic. For...phobia. Finding them all, she identified their sources and, with a devilish smile, her power extended through the house. The panels reflecting made things so much easier. What would have required large effort per person, would now take about half the effort it required for ONE person.

The forces finally busted through the gates and prepared for their fate. It would not end well.

A few were taken out by camouflaged supers, armed viciously with various deadly implements. Others were taken out by fliers. Still others by diggers, kinetics, tanks and the like.

Feralmen mauled laser emitters. Psychics stunned strongmen. Camouflagers stomped (and were stomped by) size shifters. Chargers barreled through replicators. Telekinetics hurled animal mimics through the air. And in all the ensuing chaos, the rest of the forces had to force their way to the front door.

Their leader kicked the door in, and went ahead first, gun at the ready.

Not a sound. Not a camouflager skittering across the room. Not an invisible's breath quickening as he readied to attack. Not even the shift of curtains as the eerie wind blew through. Not a sound. The leader looked around to say it was best to stick together, but by then, the others had already split up.

The leader's heart was nearly in his throat. They were in Camphrey's house, now, quite literally, and things promised only to go from bad to worse.

"What's the matter, Mr. Big Bad?" Ella's voice rang eerily from all around, "It's just me. A wealthy woman living all alone in a big old house. Nothing to be afraid of..."

The leader stepped forward, and kept a vigilant eye out on all sides. Shadowy wisps of mist roiled down the staircase, slowly creeping toward him, serpentine like death. He backed up and bumped into a wall. He whirled around, and saw he was now in the upstairs hallway. The lights flickered and phantoms manifested and disappeared. He turned again, horrified, as the walls distorted by the touch of what looked like humans trapped within.

The light short-circuited, and he gasped sharply, nearly dropping his gun. Despite all this, he tried to keep a stone face and brave his way forward. He would not give her the satisfaction of seeing him scared.

Though, he had yet to realize, she was just as determined to see him afraid as he was to remain unafraid. He stepped forward only once more and could see, as the lights flickered, that he was sinking. The red floor was more and more liquid. More and more like...

"Blood. It...it looks like blood! Son of a b***h! Oh, you're good, Camphrey, I'll give you that! You're f**kin' good..." He cringed as he trudged forward through the muddy, blood-tinged mire, his legs bumping into unknown obstacles. He resisted with all his might the urge to look down and see what things were blocking his way.

"You have no idea." Ella closed her eyes yet again.

At once, what first felt like branches or logs, now became irrefutably the touch of floating dead bodies. And to make matters worse...

"Christ! What the--?" he looked down, much to his horrified dismay. The corpses (or at least, those of which who still had their heads, and their eyes) were those of his comrades. And they didn't seem so corpselike anymore. Their grim faces unchanging, their hands began to twitch. And slowly, they began to arise. Only as much as their weak, waterlogged forms allowed, they tugged at the troop leader's clothes, his arms and legs, and his brown, shoulder-length mane. He couldn't help but look down to number the faces of the dead.

Stephens, Riley, Johnson, O'Hare...there were even a few of his yet-alive comrades numbered among the dead. And still others mumbled words breathlessly and incoherently under the water.

He tried his best to resist Camphrey's wicked wiles, but it would not be so. Pretty soon, he was in full-out panic. Trudging aimlessly in the murky, blood-tinged waters, he seemed to not even be in the hall anymore, but perhaps in her courtyard. Or a graveyard. Or a swamp. He couldn't tell in mists so obfuscating. The light grew dimmer and dimmer, until...

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" The troop leader gave a frantic cry as the dead began to rise from the murky waters. They grabbed him with force like living men, now. He punched them and pulled away from them with all his might, but...he stopped struggling for only an instant as a new face approached him, more terrifying than all the others. A slack-jawed face came toward him, bloody water and all sorts of other putrid junk falling from its mouth. A familiar face. His own face, worn by time and the bloody waters...

The reaction was nearly instant.

The dead gave one final effort, and he was pulled under at last. The cold, murky, bloodied waters invaded his mouth and nose too fast for him to catch his breath, and threatened to choke him from within. As his life flashed before his eyes, replaying his every failure and the things left yet undone, he fell to the floor of reality with a sharp, bloodcurdling cry; and he could hold back his horrified tears no longer.

In that same instant, the facade was lifted from the eyes of his cadets, releasing them from their own personal illusions. To their partial relief, they realized that they had only been wandering around in the Overlady’s living room all along.

Too late. One of the cadets went forward to awake his leader from his delusion, to remind him it was all only a deadly game of mirages; but to the troop leader, he was yet another fallen soldier, damned beside him to a watery grave. He frantically pointed his semiautomatic gun and, with hands shaking from a mix of his fear and the illusory cold, he let fly. Those who were not taken down immediately would get in a few violently accurate shots on him, before he managed to fell them as well.

And not a single bullet touched a hair on the head of the Raven Lady. With a renewed sense of power, she felt around for anymore fearful minds to play with.

Finding none within the house, she cast her perception to the front lawn. Nary a tortured mind to be found. Perhaps twenty of them had remained totally unscathed, counting the members of both sides, out of a total of two-hundred fighters. Looking down on the front lawn from the window of the tower, Ella decided today was a victory. She pressed the button for the silent alarm in the bunker where her servants hid. Time to start clean-up.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Lara's House==

Charisma sat by the windowsill of the fourth floor, eyes glued to the street far off. Ivan came up behind her with a question.

"Ya know...I was wonderin'", he started, "How is it we can see out this window, but nobody's caught sight of us yet? Don't it look like a window floatin' two-stories midair?"

Charisma chuckled, "I'd go into detail about the physics, but I'm not so sure myself. All I know is, Adam said it was a one-way window. We can see out of it, but no one can see in. Same way any pocket dimension works, I would guess."

He knelt beside her, "Whatcha lookin' at? Peepin' in on some poor dope with a bounty on their head? I knew you didn't give up bein' an assassin so easy..."

Charisma smiled and looked down briefly, "Yep, I'm still killin' bad guys. Only, this time, I'm doing it on you guys' side. But, no, I'm watching somebody else do the killing right now...I mean, Camphrey's doing them in...literally. She's turned them on each other, ambushed them from all sides. It's like she anticipated their every move. A couple hours, and people are bearely leaving alive."

Ivan stood back up upon hearing the news, and took out his phone; time to call a meeting. Everyone would meet up with him in the War Room. It was time, perhaps, to reconsider their original idea. The supers all gathered around, and Ivan leaned on the table, warlike and military-serious.

"A'right, Charisma said she saw the Overlady goin' up against some military forces from outta state."

"That's gotta be Overlady Vandal-Savage's forces. I was just watchin' tha' on the news..." Fitz piped up.

"Right, well, she just took them out in under three hours. And I don't think it took so long cause she was having problems with her powers; she was toyin' with 'em. So...if her powers is more widespread than we originally intended, and she can take out a whole crew o' supers an' other professionals usin' just her an' a few o' her forces, then we gotta change up the plan."

Fitz looked around at each of the supers, remembering what they all could do. It didn't take long before the idea came to him.

"Normally an illusionist can only project from vision range, or a similarly small range; but if Camphrey's got some way to overcome that short distance, then we need to eliminate the possibility of succumbin' to illusion at all."

The others looked at him, blinking vacuously in unison.

"Ah mean", he continued, "Only perspicuous minds are gonna be on the front line. Everyone else stays away from the inside of the Manor at all costs. We need minds that can pierce illusion, or resist it in the first place. That's all that's standin' between us and victory over this Overlady..."

The other perked up. He was right. All it took was to send in a group of supers with mental fortitude. In great enough numbers, they would suffice to overtake her forces, and then overtake her with relative ease. It was so simple, and yet so brilliant, it made them all feel pretty stupid for not imagining the idea earlier. And yet now was not the time to discuss their failure to match Fitz's strategic prowess. Now was the time to get happy. Victory was close at hand.

"So, that leaves one question still. Who all's goin'? I need to know in case I'm among the chosen. I ain't just havin' any old person catch my body when I project."

Fitz assured her that had already been thought of, "Ah already thought o' who's goin'. Tessa for her Perspicuity and Telepathy. Quentin for his Accelerated Thinkin' Processes. Kitty, for her, well, bein' her; a side effect o' her Berserker Rage is the power to sense and resist when folks try to dominate her. Vicious for her Animal Psyche. Cookie for her ESP, which perceives the reality past illusions. Ginger for her Brain Cloud, which makes mental contact hard unless you're familiar with the makeup of her mind. And...Lara. Yer Frigid Mind'll do nicely."

Lara blinked, "Frigid Mind? What are you talking--?"
 
"Ya mean you've never used it b'fore? Ah figgered as much, but...a'right, lemme explain. Fer some reason, along with normal ice type powers, yer mind is protected by the mental equivalent of cold. Anybody who tries to mentally contact you, and isn't allowed in willingly will be bombarded with an overwhelmin' sense o' cold. And in time, you could project tha' feelin' like a telepath projects thoughts, or like the Raven Lady projects illusions."

A simultaneous marvel came across everyone's faces, except Vicious, whose mind barely understood, and Cookie, who had heard the explanation coming through the Astral plane a day previous. She patted Lara on the shoulder with a smile, stood up, and headed for the door, looking back to the others.

"Izzat everything, y'all? I'm expectin' a call back in--" The phone rang downstairs, "I'll just go get that." She disappeared around the corner.

Fitz stood, "Well, Ah s'pose tha's it, then. Uh, meetin' adjourned, we got a big day tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Collin asked, "I thought we was headed out today."

"Nah, it's gotta be tomorrow. We need our rest, an' we all could use some more trainin'. Besides, Camphrey Manor ain't gonna recover from that first wave of attack THAT quick. We got time."

"Well, if you say so, Fizzy. Think I'ma go lay down somewhere..." Des looked mischievously to Alice, who quickly seconded the idea of retreating to bed; she got her bag and followed Des out the door. Snake and Trick exchanged glances and chuckled between themselves, knowing very well what the two really had in mind.

With that, the rest of the supers headed off to their respective activities; Ivan took Collin, Jeremy, Quentin, Duke and Johnny to the weight room. Trick and Snake went to Snake's room to play XBox Live. Ginger escorted Mark to the Common Room to show him some of the meditation tricks Cookie had taught her. And Pierce escorted the others to the Training Room; it was his turn to be the bad guy.

Adam walked downstairs at the mention of the others heading off to the Training Room. Cookie headed over to him.

"That was Ben, an ally, on the phone. He said that he and his friends Byne and Francesca were holed up with a nice family that 'agreed' to take them in. Didn't take long before stuff got ugly with the neighbors, though, and they had to leave." The blind oracle straightened the flower in her hair and sat down on the sofa.

Adam replied, "Okay, so, uh, you want me to get Anita? Maybe give him the coordinates?"

"No", Cookie turned the TV off and headed into the kitchen, "I need you to make a portal for him to reach us. I already told him where to find it. Just wait 'til Tessa's done in the Training Room. She can read my mind to see his location, and then project it to you, so you can make the door. We'll also need a connection to Torres, I imagine. Torres and Ben's people don't seem to ready to go lookin' for a fight, but I imagine they'll be glad to see us."

Adam looked out the window, at the gloom. The rain didn't make things any better. He looked back to Cookie, "All right. Gimme an hour. I'll be ready then."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Lara's House, Chicago==

The portal opened, and Ben, Byne and Francesca hurried through, before Ben turned back and voiced a very purple sound to close the door. They were being pursued, he explained. The three sought out Tessa, who was more than happy to fully detail the group's meeting just a while previous. Panmnesia made it easy.

"Alright, cool, so you all got a battle plan. That just leaves our news. On the way out, we saw some dudes headin' up to Savage Manor. Things didn't look pretty."

Tessa thought a second, and she and Fitz had the revelation at the same time, "We could divide our forces."

Francesca looked at the supers, and immediately she and Fitz began to devise the battle teams. When they were done, the teams were carefully decided. Fitz would take his original team, Cookie, Ginger, Charisma, plus some of the newbies. Kitty's team, Cosmo, Adam, Anita and the rest of the newbies would go with Ben's group.

"And that's cool with you? Because, if my calculation is on point, Lillith and Ella should both be let open a day or so after these simultaneous attacks. They won't feel any need to attack or defend, leaving them wide open for us to scope out their very lax security, take it down, and basically finish what their military opposition started."

So it was settled. The supers began preparing. Although, it would be delayed from the original planned depart time, today would be the day.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Lara's House, Chicago==

The sky churned vehemently in the distance, like a monstrous beast waiting to be unleashed. Fortunately, however, it growled miserably in the gray yonder, and so it was clear that weather wouldn't be a serious factor.

Des walked away from his boys as they prepared to leave, and looked for Alice through the crowd of eager readying. He found her tying up her hair. He walked up to her from behind and pulled her close with his trademark grin.

"So, Alice...how 'bout a kiss before I go? This might be the last time we see each other..."

Alice turned to him, with a coy smile, "Don't think so...you already got lucky with me once, remember? Save that luck for coming home safely."

No kiss for him. He walked back over to his boys, who chuckled to themselves at his strike-out. His lucky charm didn't work so well when people KNEW about it.

Fitz stepped up to the front of the War Room, and called everyone's attention. Ivan entered the room, and the others gasped and oohed and ahhed. David Gorak, Jr. stood at Ivan's side, and Ivan looked at them all with a smile.

"Turns out our boy David don't wanna follow in his pop's footsteps after all, boys and girls. Took a bit o' convincin', but he says he wants to help." The supers lit up and gave him his applause.

He began a pseudo-heroic acceptance speech, but was quickly cut off from being emotional and heartfelt as Ivan tossed him his gear. He took the hint with a sheepish smile, and with that, the supers split up into their groups, said their parting words to others not in their group, and went about their ways. Fitz's group headed downstairs, David close behind, and Ben took his group through the portal he came through.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Fitz's Group==

The supers walked down the street, each telling themselves that everything would go well. That this Overlady was tough, but that they were tougher. That they would be the agents to restore peace to this place.

The people had been oppressed here so long. Aside from Lillith Vandal-Savage, the Mover and a few others, the people under Camphrey were perhaps the most repressed. Very little of her rule was pleasant for anyone other than her. Those who knew her disliked her; those who didn't know her didn't understand her; those who crossed her died at her hand; and all were terrified by her.

They all thought of the terrible things they had heard about her in the news. How ruthless her emissaries were. How she commanded the deepest devotion. How she hated failure, and didn't tolerate anything less than the best from her subjects. Very little pleased her, and seemingly nothing scared her. That which she could not force out of her subjects by her militant ferocity, she dragged out slowly by excruciating mental torture.

There was the time she put a bullet in the head of a servant for spilling a drink on her at a charity gala. And the time she ordered the death of her cousin for stealing from her for drug money. Not to mention how she came to the throne in the first place; the "mysterious death" of her parents, each by the things which terrified them. Her mother drowned in the deep end of the pool. Her father fell from the highest balcony. And Ella conveniently there to witness every time.

She was indeed the stuff of nightmares. Her love of inciting fear would make the Boogeyman proud, as her subjects would put it. Freddy Kruger was perhaps a pleasant change from the nightmarish reality she brought about in Chicago.

And they were on their way to match wits with her head-to-head.

The supers were nearly to the gates, and all collectively exhaled, hoping to shoo away the butterflies in their stomachs. The streets were still clear enough to hear the eerie sigh of the winds. No one dared peek out at the impending skirmish. They simply stayed within, even atheists praying that things went differently for the rebels than for their predecessors. Still, no one dared peek out a window.

As the servants cleaned up on the inside, Sirena took a break from bossing them around to note the approaching supers. Minerva held her hand up, and the servants stopped their cleaning. Another battle, especially so soon, seemed a wearying prospect, but it would have to be done for their Mistress.

Even if they DID hate her guts.

With that, the servants took their places, and waited for the impending attack. This would not be pretty, as violence never was. Yet, these were some of the faces who had taken down Overlord Caleb Trelaine, not simply nameless faces stuffed into fighting gear for the first time. Not anonymous supers and normals gathered together for a job.

Rebels. Supers who deliberately headed here to depose their respected leader. Supers who hated the tyranny that Camphrey was all about, and pitied the people forcibly subject to it. Supers who had, ironically, come to free THEM. No, this battle would certainly not be easy.

It would take a toll on their consciences if they won, and would cost their lives if they lost. The Raven Lady had put them in a terrible position, indeed. Yet here they were. No turning back.

The sun peeked from behind the clouds as they sailed off into the distance to plague some other place. Ivan grabbed both gates and rattled them back and forth to wrench them loose from the ground.

Though, his efforts were quickly met with a superhuman defense. A powerful electricity coursed through the bars, and then through his body. A black-haired electrical super let go of the bars from the far end of the Overlady's lawn, levitated above the gate, and promptly began firing electrical volleys at them all. Crackling with electrical power, giving off the pungent odor of ozone, Pierce decided he would handle her, while Nadia would take care of the electro at the other end.

With a strong boot to the gate from Ivan, the doors flew off the hinges, and the supers poured in to find their sparring partners.

Devon found himself against a pack of supers. One could breathe fire, the other had Superhuman Reflexes, yet another could agitate nerve impulses with a touch, and still another was geokinetic. Devon looked around with a smile.

"Only four? Cool." He produced all 49 replicates, each one leaping out of the previous, and with nary another word, the group of Dev-clones would be upon them. A fired-up, eagerly-belligerent and merciless hive-mind, one clone would pick up where another slacked, and they all watched out for each other with unerring accuracy. Punches, kicks, tossing one another into the air for flyby attacks...the geokinetic was perhaps the only reason they lasted so long.

Johnny was having similar luck. Supers ran at him left and right, and he passed right through them, allowing them to collide with one another. And when that got to be a bore, he disappeared into the ground, only to pop up behind a pyro with a kick to the back of the head, or behind a vanisher with a kick to the groin. His luck would only improve from there. He popped up from the ground behind an aerokinetic and his hand accidentally passed through her head. She fell, much to his pleasant surprise. He had stumbled upon a much more useful power than basic phasing.

Jeremy headed for one servant, and a large fellow stepped out in front of him. Jeremy bounced off the brick wall of a man and fell on his behind. The giant smiled, and that stupid smile caught Pierce's eye from across the field. Was that...? It was. They had tangled in Cabral. He couldn't wait for the huge guy to get his due. And he would. Jeremy took a few punches, but quickly realized his mistake. When the giant stopped to taunt him, he stopped, mid-insult as the grass around him began to shrivel. All the water had been sucked from them, and formed around Jeremy's fists. Gaining new strength through the water, the playing field would now be leveled. And so would the giant.

Collin smirked at the sight from across the field, but quickly re-focused his attention as still more supers came out the front door. Before they could get close enough to the others, he had to think fast, but grass wasn't exactly the toughest member of the plant kingdom. It could be, perhaps, the most bloody, however. Without another thought, he raised his hands, and the grass straightened. Stiffened. Sharpened. The surrounding grass would make for a bloody sight for foes foolish enough to stumble. And when he had taken out what he considered a good amount of baddies, he looked down.

"Oh, look, there IS vines I can work with."

He raised his hands again, elongating the vines and equipping them with wicked thorns, and went back to working with the vines.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Lick looked to either side, tongue lashing about at condescending foes. The wallcrawler that faced him was totally out of his element. The one with slippery skin would be powerless against his super-sticky tongue. The agile was far to skinny to be of any physical threat. And the feralman wasn't truly angry enough to do anything beyond his normal capability. This was Lick's lucky day. The sticky pink tendril lashed out to the agile first, slamming him into the wallcrawler, before whipping feralman and using him to bat away the one with slippery skin. He caught the slippery one again, and slung him away, before doing the same again to the rest of his allies.

As for Des and his boys, they were having a less easy time. None of them were particularly powerful physically, and they seemed to attract the meaner supers. First a shapeshifter, then an elemental. Even an umbrakinetic. This was getting to be a hassle. When finally they were met with an agile, a replicator and a blaster at the same time, Des decided it was time to get a bit more creative. He called to Trick, who summoned a chin-up bar for him to do a somersault off of, tossing his throwing knives with deadly fate-guided accuracy to off the blaster.

Snake quickly darted about to take on the replicator's dupes. One after the other, he struck their pressure points with black mamba, king cobra and numerous other nasty venoms. Most of them got it sprayed directly to the face. He caught a few right in the heart and various vital blood vessels, and finally he caught the "root". Needing a bit of space to replicate as some unfortunate psychic restriction, she was at a loss. Snapped up in Snake's deadly grasp, the life slowly choking out of her, she would be dead only momentarily.

Trick was having even more trouble. He summoned a bat, a crowbar, various knives. Nothing seemed to help take out this extremely persistent shapeshifter. Then finally...perhaps his best idea in a while. He concentrated a bit harder than normal, focusing his power to its fullest, and the shapeshifter looked down to see that his shadow seemed bigger. He looked up, and barely had a chance to react. The school bus collapsed onto the petty shapeshifter with a heavy, creaking, metallic thud. And when Trick caught his breath, an full, open gas can from the gas station, and a lit cigarette from an apartment tenant up the street would follow. He took cover behind David's earthen blast shield as the shapeshifter was finished off.

When that was taken care of, David had his own problems to deal with. A telekinetic. Each blow he tried to land resulted in a quick telekinetic riposte. Sure, she wasn't deadly, but she was no fool when it came to defending herself. He pounded the telekinetic's forcefield with all his strength until he realized the flaw in his plan. As soon as he did, a smile came across his face, and the smile on her face faded. A pillar of rock erected from within the forcefield, directly beneath her jaw. She would die instantly.

Even Fitz and Mark would get to try their hand at combat. Fitz punched them to short out their abilities, and Mark would summon a blast of darkness, or a malevolent minor specter to finish them off. And when those began to tire, Ivan took off from pounding a wolf-mimic to help them out.

And as the others had their fun, Tessa made her way through the fray with those chosen to go with her. As soon as she stunned the two concealed camouflagers and the one vanisher that planned to ambush them, she stepped over them and looked around the dark and creepy manse.

It was, in a word, frightening. And in a few more words, it was likely the final showdown.

After all the anticipation, all the anxious waiting to restore Chicago to its former self...she was just up the stairs. In the highest tower. Quickly, there came to mind a twisted version of every princess fairy tale she had ever been read, and it creeped her the hell out.

Higher and higher the supers ascended the path to their victory...or their demise.

They reached only the second floor when there came a call from the top, just outside the tower.

"You want a fight? I'm waiting... Come on up, I dare you!"

They looked to Cookie, expecting her perhaps to warn them of a trap, or if there was any other reason not to hurry up.

"What y'all lookin' at me for?" She piped up with a smile, "Don't y'all know it's not nice to keep a lady waitin'? Let's go!"

She was a bit ahead of them before they began moving again.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Camphrey Manor==

Tessa, Ginger, Cookie and Lara all slowly, but surely ascended the stairs, gaining their nerve more and more with each step they took. This was the moment they had been planning for weeks in advanced. Now was not the time to be shaky, and certainly not the time to turn back.

For all the kids who thought CAMPHREY was the Boogeyman. For all the women who were afraid to go out at night with their boyfriends. For all the men who feared nothing...except dying at the Raven Lady's hand. For all those who had died...

A sudden chill came to them all, and they stopped only a moment, but Cookie, in a surprisingly calm tone, assured them it was nothing and that they should press on.

The reached the top of the stairs quicker than they hoped they would.

Lara leaned in to turn the doorknob, but Ginger beat her to the punch with a swift kick directly to the door. It flew open, and the supers quickly ducked back down the stairs as they were met with gunfire. Machine guns, wielded by normals that were armed to the teeth. Direct, but decidedly, not unexpected.

Tessa looked to the others, making sure no one was hit as they retreated down the stairs just out of the line of fire, and then sent out her mental search party. Finding the minds she was looking for, she quickly migrained them into submission. Another slight mental push, and they simultaneously entered a coma.

As Tessa's party came back up the stairs, Ella looked down at the bodies of her two favorite non-accurate shooters, and then to either side, at Sirena, and then Minerva . They hadn't expected that. Nevertheless, they would need to make quick work of Tessa and company. The Overlady had made plans for later that evening.

Minerva picked up her throwing knives and began to toss them. Her sight wasn't quite the makings of an accurate, but it was good enough still to pose a threat. And no minds were unprotected, so Sirena would have to settle for a blunt object. She lunged for Lara, grabbing her from behind and trying to put her into a choke hold.

Ginger ran up to Camphrey and grabbed her by the hand, "Where d'you think you're goin'?" The two grappled one another and traded blows for a bit, as Cookie observed it all...her mind slowly coming under a strange and unfamiliar influence. A powerful jolt shook the tower, causing books to fall from their shelves, the globe to topple, and the windows to shatter. The women ceased their fighting immediately, thinking a seismic had rocked their place of combat. Only Ginger knew immediately to look at Cookie.

"Cookie?"

Cookie's face looked to Ginger, but it was not Cookie's voice that responded, "Corrina has agreed to be silent so that we may speak..."

"We?" Tessa marveled and stepped back, unfamiliar with the strange creeping sensation she now felt.

The other supers stepped back as well, startled and stilled at the same time by the voice that came from Cookie. It was not a woman's voice. Or, at least not the voice of ONE woman. There had to be at least twenty voices. And as they spoke, the number seemed only to increase.

"We have come forth from the Astral Plane to witness the demise of the Overlady..."

Camphrey pushed the others aside and stepped forward, assured within herself that she had nothing to be afraid of, "Oh, really? Voice effects? That's how you're going to scare me out of town? Voice effects? Please."

"Um, Overlady", Sirena piped up, trying her best not to betray the panic quickly rising in her, "I've heard vocal mimics before. They usually only mimic ONE voice."

Camphrey took yet another step forward, "Then a sound manipulator? Either way, I won't be fooled..."

"Be silent, fearmonger! You have said enough! We will be silent no more! We WILL be heard!"

Ella lost her voice, and the others took a step back. These were not voice effects, nor were they the sound manipulation of a skilled deceiver. No, not with the sensation she now felt. It was a twisting, writhing type of fear she hadn't sensed in a long, long while, and hoped never to feel again. It was...her own. She searched her mind frantically for an explanation, and through all her logicking and reasoning, alas, no other reason came to mind. Her deeds had finally caught up to her, simple as that. And by some unhappy accident of chance, this medium was at the right place, at the right time to exact the vengeance of all of Ella's victims. All of them.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Cookie's head fell back, her body taken up from the floor; she looked down at Ella again, eyes now aglow. And one by one, the faces of the dead appeared and vanished from Cookie's visage. Each of them had to get a look, first hand, at the terror that once plagued their memories, that once haunted their dreams, changing them into horrid nightmares.

The room began to shake again, now more vehemently. Camphrey's servants rushed up to see what was wrong, as apparently, the tower was the only place that was rocking, and the door slammed in their faces, without Cookie so much as looking back. There would be none to rescue Ella from her doom now.

Cookie's body drifted forward without a sound, the room growing darker than the impending night time. Face grim, the spirits spoke through Cookie again.

"You, Ella Gwendolyn Camphrey, are not fit to rule. It was neither your divine right, nor your intention for taking this place. You are no sovereign, Ella Camphrey. You are a criminal! And your crimes? Crimes...against...humanity!"

Ella looked around at the others, who only witnessed, and marveled at what they all knew, deep down, was to come. She turned back to face the accusations.

"You-you don't know me! You don't know me at all! How can you spout such baseless accusations? I rule this place as I see fit! My servants would vouch for me!" She turned back again, only to see that Minerva refused to say a word, and Sirena could barely take her eyes off the levitating medium.

"They will not utter lies to protect you this time, Ella! God will be your judge! These women your jury! And we...your executioners!"

Cookies hand extended forth, causing Ella to retract in horror, but the hand outstretched did not want her. Not yet.

No, instead, the hand reached out to the furthest wall, the one diagonally across from the Overlady. Another shake, and the wall behind that bookcase began to crack. To crumble. To fall away.

Into the void of the Astral Realm.

With a great, sucking vortex of moans and screams and hateful cries from unsettled spirits, that corner was nearly gone, and the outside became indiscernible from the violent upheavals of a tornado. No buildings were discernible. No ground. Not even any sky. Simply the chaos...and the gloom.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Camphrey Manor==

From below, Fitz caught sight of the spectacle first. Mark had knocked away the last of their nearest foes with an umbrakinetic blast enhanced by the nightfall, and now that he had no immediate danger around him, Fitz noticed and pointed out the tower where the Raven Lady was being confronted. Ivan caught his technopathic sparring partner in a headlock so he wouldn’t have to fight and watch at the same time. Pierce knocked a normal in the jaw with an electric fist, Nadia blasted some more with a frigid breath and the newbies dealt quickly with their foes. And those of Ella’s servants who had no sparring mates simply looked on as the topmost corner of the tower blew out with a powerful burst, and then became enshrouded in what looked like a hateful storm cloud.

The air became still, and thick with the essence of the Astral Realm. Pierce looked down and saw that the hairs of his arm were standing on end, but whatever it was that was visited upon them was not any normal electrical disturbance. It smacked of static electricity, and smelled of that odd electromagnetic perfume, but sounded like right before Cookie received a vision. What animals had not already been run off by the clamor of combat were frantic to flee from what had now arrived at Camphrey’s doorstep. They perceived simultaneously the magnitude of her impending punishment.

Cookie’s face turned back to Ella as her cool faded ever slowly into creeping dismay.

“So, what do you plan to do to me? Thrust me into that place, killing me like you died? What justice is that? An eye for an eye—!”

“You have ALREADY made us blind! Blind with the rage of wrongfully losing our loved ones! NO, you will NOT escape us! We have waited long enough! The time draws nearer and nearer that your reign comes to an end!”

Ella turned back to face the gaping, purple-pink void that awaited her, and the other supers were telekinetically pulled aside. The gloom beckoned to the fearmonger, and she walked between the others to approach it, ever slowly…

The swirling, monstrous, beautiful, chaotic mass of displaced souls broke through more and more, breaking away at the tower wall little by little. A few books were snatched into the mercurial psychic space, and then the globe, and finally the gravitation tugged gently on her skirt tails…

“Yes, that shall be your abode forever. Come quietly or we WILL take you by force.”

Ella reached a hand out, as though to all her long-lost loved ones…to a distant memory of an innocent childhood she never knew…Then she came to her senses again, “NO! This isn’t right! I don’t deserve that! And you don’t get to decide that I DO! Whatever happened to a fair trial? Even the Astral Realm must have laws!”

“Even THOSE laws you violated, you tyrant!” Ella shrank back again from the booming rebut, “The soul is the most sacred of a man’s possessions…and next his freedom, his will…and after, his peace! Who are you to take ANY of those away? For your heinous robbery of OURS, the price shall be your OWN!”

The room shook yet again, in protest of the Overlady’s obstinacy. She WOULD see the error of her ways, one way or another. Cookie’s face turned to the others, “We have no more business with you. Leave now, unless you desire to join her…”

Ginger stepped forward a half-step, but turned back to Lara and Tessa, realizing her sister would be fine. The spirits had always been good to her, and they didn’t seem about to stop now. With that, the door opened; the three of them, and Camphrey’s henchwomen headed down the stairs post-haste, reaching the bottom of the stairs quicker than they had reached the top.

Past Ivan as he noogied the dismayed technopath; past Pierce and his black-haired electrical foe, who had stopped mid-strike to observe the chaos; past Johnny, Collin, Devon, Jeremy, Des and company, and everyone else, and into the yard, to observe with them. Even Charisma and Philip had come down from sniping Ella’s henchmen from afar. This promised to be good, even from what little the two could discern within the blur.

What everyone expected to see, they weren’t sure, but it would make itself apparent soon enough…to them, and most importantly, to the Raven Lady. Yes, now would be the time for HER nightmare to come true. All the deaths she had arranged. All the petty offenses she deemed crimes for the sole reason that they inconvenienced her. All the crimes she had let SLIDE at her subjects’ expense, simply because SHE got a cut of the profits…Indeed, now would be the time to take responsibility for it all.

The tower rocked yet again, and the strange storm cloud that descended onto the tower thundered hatefully. The portal had been opened, the things of the supernatural concealed from nosy passersby, and spirits on the other side could wait no more. One by one, those who had traversed the shade left Cookie’s body in faintly glowing astral wisps; faster and faster they circulated the room, their tangible emotion whipping up a wind that had no earthly business being there. Stronger and stronger the wind arose, until even the books were lifted from their shelves and the floor.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Ella, now wild-eyed with fear, ducked a book here, a book there, taking the occasional hit to the face and the side. Finally, her favorite statue, a foot-tall golden rendering of the Greek victory goddess Nike, struck the blow that would mark the beginning of the end…Cookie regained consciousness as soon as Ella lost it. She stepped back with nary a word, and turned to the door which had opened again for her to leave. The spirits would take it from there.

Unconscious, drained and deprived of the fighting urge, the mind of the once-feared Overlady was easy pickings. From every side, specters invaded her psyche, tugging at the very corners of her ego, and pulling loose the vast mental fortifications she had been building up ever since she was young. Her tough exterior mind resisted their advances, but enough of them at every side and their force easily moved Ella’s mental mountains. They rushed in like a flood, inundating even HER defenses, so she couldn’t return to consciousness even if she wanted to.

It made the extraction so much easier when they worked together…

Ella groaned softly as they tugged. She grunted as they wrenched her mental hinges loose. And when they finally managed to lift free the jagged, razor-sharp, deeply winding contraption of evil thoughts and plans and crimes and conspiracies held within her mind…

“AAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHH!!!!” Her body convulsed as an automatic response, but no voluntary motion would come to her.

The spirits relented at last, retracting from her body slowly and solemnly, with her soul in tow. It seemed almost a thing of its own as it blinked its eyes, looked back at its dead shell and cried out to be returned to the land of the living. Yet it would not be. The winds whipped up to nearly hurricane force, as her spirit was dragged off like a condemned prisoner, like a slave, slow, slow, painfully slow…

Into the depths of doom.

A final hateful roar came from the gaping expanse, kicking out all the things of the material realm which had been taken in unintentionally. The thunder boomed from the surrounding thundercloud, and the gusts swelled to a fever pitch, before the wall of the tower was sealed up again with a great rush of air. And when the chaotic flurry had settled, Ella was very much dead. Dead beyond mediumism. Dead beyond necromancy. Dead beyond hope…

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Camphrey Manor==

Cookie came to herself, albeit slower than normal. She made her way down the stairs, slowly shaking her head. She knew how cruel the vengeance of the Astral Planes could be. And for somebody so heartless, so hateful as Ella Camphrey, justice would be swift…and painful.

She could only imagine the torment that the Overlady had been delivered to, but even that was a bit much. She thought now only of leaving the tower, as the spirits did a thorough cleanup. Out the front door, onto the lawn, her presence seemed to signal a ceasefire to all the rest who had not stopped fighting to observe Ella’s demise. Slowly, weakly, she shuffled toward Ginger, and collapsed in her arms.

“Cookie!” Her sister cried, dismayed at the sight of Cookie’s frail-looking condition, “You okay, Cookie?”

Softly, Cookie huffed with a smile, “I’m fine…a bit thirsty, but otherwise, fine.”

The girls crowded around and hugged her, grateful that she was okay. Slowly, the boys crowded around and got in their hugs as well. As she finished greeting the last of them, she motioned to the others, and the crowd parted. Though her mortal eyes failed her, she faced the only two villains who had made it alive out of the entire ordeal.

“I suppose you’ll be wantin’ some sort of explanation…” Minerva smiled weakly, but her smile was smacked off by the menacing glares she received from the others.

“It might be just me, Min, but I don’t think they’re interested.” Sirena took a step back.

Pierce stepped in front of Cookie, eyes narrowed, electrical power coursing across him from every side. He was mad enough to blast the hell out of the both of them, but Ivan and Nadia stepped up to hold him back. Enough hostility had been shown today. Now was the time to begin the rebuilding process.

“Ah got a better idea”, Fitz spoke up, feeling an unfamiliar aggression rise in him, “How about you come back with us to our headquarters, and you can explain there?”

[Celadon's Penultimate]

The two looked at one another, and after deciding simultaneously to run for it, they would only move a few feet before sinking into the ground up to their ankles. David stepped forward with a hand outstretched, and threatened to turn the ground into quicksand if they tried anything funny. With that, Fitz turned back to those of Camphrey’s former servants who hadn’t been killed or knocked out of consciousness.

He called them to gather around him, and with heavy heart, formally relieved them of their duty as servants of the Overlady. Not that it was his place, but he felt it was the right thing to do. He and the others deeply regretted having to combat them, knowing that they were only doing what the Overlady was too afraid to do herself. So, he said that to them, and nothing more.

For a second, they simply stood there, unaware of whether to rejoice of the news, or to mourn that it took so many lives lost before their freedom came. They decided to do a bit of both, and after, went about their ways, to find whoever of their relatives and other loved ones remained. And if none remained, they would use the long trip to contemplate how to start anew.

Fitz turned from his solemn self-imposed duty, back to the two ne’er-do-wells David had left cemented to the ground. He took them each by the hand, and nodded back to David, who released them from their trap. He and Nadia got behind the two in case they tried anything funny. That settled, the group began their victorious march back to headquarters. They would let the news people handle the news of Camphrey’s demise.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Lara’s House, Chicago==

The supers convened about the same time at Lara’s house, the feeling of exhaustion finally hitting them all like an otherworldly gravity. Vicious trotted back to the Training Room, waited for Kitty to set it to “jungle”, and then retreated to her heated rock perch. Jeremy trudged up to the room where the pool was and dove in, finding a shaded spot at the bottom to nap. Cosmo vanished to his Dyson Sphere in the depths of space. Likewise, the others headed up to their rooms and gladly welcomed the sleep that descended upon them. And Ben’s crew would take their places in Lara’s living room until Adam got around to preparing rooms for them. They cherished sleep on those couches like satin beds in a presidential suite.

It was, after all, nearly 2 o’clock in the morning.

And the next day would not arrive for everyone until around 2 o’clock that afternoon. Since Adam and Anita were the only two to stay behind from combat, and thus were not worn out from fighting, they would be charged with the task of taking orders for lunch.

Orders came from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and Subway, and the new supers were more than happy to demolish it all in no time flat, which brought smiles to everyone’s faces. After all the carnage the new supers had seen, a little fun time and relaxation was welcome. Ivan, Pierce, Nadia, Tessa, Mark and Fitz remembered well how they felt when Trelaine was deposed. It wasn’t a smiling time, or a laughing time. It simply felt like time to pick up the pieces, especially since Tamara had died along the way. So seeing their new friends still able to smile in the face of what they had encountered…it was a welcome treat.

What’s more, there would be good news to follow.

Fitz allowed them their free time; Des and friends would have time to play with Adam on the Xbox 360; Kitty would have the chance to play Frisbee with Ivan and Vicious; Tock would have time to meditate with Mark, Ginger and Cookie, but when night fell again, he decided it was time to call them back to attention. As usual, they met in the War Room.

“A’right, so Ah know ya’ve been through a lot already, but we still gotta think about our next move. Ah was talkin’ with Francesca, Adam an’ Anita, an’ we came up with some destinations we think you guys will appreciate.”

The supers looked at one another, and then back to Fitz.

Trick spoke up, “Aiight, cool, so where’s next?”

Fitz indicated Ivan to let down the projector screen, clicked the projector to a screen with the World Map on it, then answered with a chuckle, “Well, some of us have assignments around the states. The rest of you are headed…abroad.”

The supers clamored among themselves. Not only were they going to be superheroes, liberators of their fellow man and role models to the public; the perks of the job description were already kicking in. The Superhuman Resistance would be going international! Though, with this new, exciting revelation, obviously, new questions, comments and concerns arose.

“Who gets to go abroad?”

“Do we get to choose where we go?”

“I’ve always wanted to go to Milan!”

“London!”

“Paris!”

“Tokyo!”

“Hawaii!”

“We get to choose our teams, right?”

“What tech do we get?”

Fitz put up his hands and quieted them, “Look, everybody, we understand all yer concerns. So, t’be fair, Ah think we should choose our own teams.”

Naturally, Fitz chose Pierce, Ivan, Tessa and Nadia. Ben chose Byne and Francesca. Kitty chose Vicious, Quentin, Eugene and Tock. Collin chose Jeremy, Johnny, Devon, Philip and Travis. Duke picked out Delilah, Alice, Jessica, Xiu and Snipe. Des chose Trick, Snake and David. Mark and Cosmo would go with Ginger and Cookie.

And Charisma would go alone. She had business to attend to.

As for Adam and Anita, they would remain with semi-pacifist Lara until they were needed, for maybe transport, search and rescue, or the like. Until then, Adam would work on some new tech and work on turning the place into a more proper base of operations; Anita would coordinate schedules, finances and locations. Not quite the glitz and glam of being “famous, rockstar superheroes”, as she put it, but it suited her just fine.

And her first task would be to coordinate, with Francesca, where the supers would be headed to.

“I’ve been watching the news, and doing some other research to find out which places across the globe are most immediately in need of our services. And sorry, girls, it’s not Milan, or Paris, or London, or Morocco. I’ve put the twenty most likely places with governments on the verge of social upheaval. And to pick where you go, you’ll draw the name from a hat. It’s about the best we can do until Adam has the computer lab fully operational. So…pick a team leader, and that team leader will pick a piece of paper from the hat to see where you go.”

Pierce looked at his group mates, and they nodded in agreement that he should pick for them. Ben would pick for Francesca and Byne. Duke would pick for his group. Collin for his. Des for his. Kitty for hers. And Ginger picked for her group; although she intended to head back to Odessa with her sister, Cosmo and Mark, she’d accept the job if a juicy-enough opportunity arose. Looking at their papers simultaneously, some were more excited than others about where they would be headed.

“You gotta be jok—Egypt?” Collin looked at his paper, face befuzzled.

“Isn’t that place just coming under a new ruler? She’d barely been there a year!” Philip replied.

“At least you get to go out of the States.” Eugene replied, looking over Kitty’s shoulder, “We’re headed for Las Angeles.”

“Yeah, we got lucky, too. Ugh…”, Ben grimaced, “Looks like we’re headed for Mexico.”

“Well, maybe you guys can stay in Cancun…” Delilah sighed, “Where do you know that’s fun in CANADA?”

“They got great underground hockey rings, I hear, since the government ban.” Jeremy offered, “So, uh, Des, where’d you get?”

Des was grinning like a lunatic, “Hehe, that’s whassup. We got Florida. Yup, after we take care of Orlando, we gon’ hit up Tampa, Miami and damn-near every beach…”

Everyone else groaned. Then they looked to Pierce’s group. Tessa chuckled lightly. Fitz’s face was in his palm. Nadia’s head shook with a smile that said, “Why didn’t I see this coming?” And Ivan could hardly stop smiling.

“We got…the Mississippi-Alabama territories.” Pierce sighed, looking back at Ivan’s goofy smile, “You happy now, ya big lug? We can go stay with your girlfriend while we plan.”

The others looked at Pierce and then at Ivan. Collin spoke up first, “Girlfriend? What’s he talkin’ about? Wait a minute, don’t tell me he’s—”

“Screwing Overlady Lisa-Lee Cade, in return for her total cooperation in taking down the other Overlords?” Tessa snickered, “Why, yes. Yes, he is.”

Cookie giggled, “Ivan, boy…you a trip.”

“Well, you know me.” Ivan grinned, “I’m always lookin’ for ways to serve my country…”

“Yeah, you’re a real patriot, ya goof.” Ginger rolled her eyes with a smile, “Anywho…it looks like it’s Dallas for us. It’s still Texas, but not quite home for me and Cookie.”

Anita went back to the computers, and the supers looked at one another, chatting pleasantly about their assignments. It all promised to be so exciting! Saving lives, foiling villainous plans; fifteen years ago, it would’ve been only the stuff of fiction and fantasy. Now, they themselves would be the heroes to save the day. Only a few more days before the next exhilarating chapter of their lives would begin.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

When finally the day came, the excitement was nearly tangible. Everyone packed their things quick as they could, and met with Adam, who was finishing the last door in the Common Room. The supers all gathered around him, and he spoke with a warm smile.

“Wow…” he looked at his feet, “We’ve known each other a short while, but I’ll miss seeing you guys around. You guys take care of yourselves.”

The supers all agreed with sentimental tint to their voices, and hugged one another, and gave one another their last parting words. Except for any of their teammates, they probably wouldn’t see each other again for at least a few weeks. They reflected briefly on their fond moments together, and he called their attention again.

“Okay. So. The first door is for…Ben and company.”

Ben, Byne and Francesca stepped up to the door, looking back to their newfound friends, and waved to them as they went through to the other side. Though they still had their reservations about it, Mexico promised to be at least interesting.

“And…this one’s the door for Kitty’s gang.”

Kitty, with Vicious leashed at her side, Eugene, Quentin and Tock approached their door and parted with smiles. Los Angeles was a damn sight better than Chicago, and they were ready to find out what trouble they could get into. Then Duke’s group was up. Canada promised to provide a new challenge or them, as they had never handled an Overlord on their own, but the challenge would be more than welcome. They wondered what the Overlord would be like… Collin’s group stepped up afterward, psyched up for their trip to Egypt. Hopefully, things would come easier to them as they planned on taking this next Overlord down, but even if it didn’t, they assured themselves that teamwork would bring them through.

And after them, Cookie, Ginger, Mark and Cosmo. Cookie could hardly wait; she promised Mark and Cosmo that they would LOVE Texas this time of year. And the Overlord they would be up against? She was anxious to meet them head on.

Then, finally, it was down to the last group: Pierce and the gang. They looked to Charisma, Anita, Adam and Lara fondly, before saying their departing words. They had been such a great help in taking down these two Overladies, and establishing them as a viable unit. They would not forget Lara’s generosity, or Charisma’s readiness to help them out, or Adam and Anita’s quick thinking.

They waved to the four one last time, and passed through. The call had already been made, arrangements already set; time to meet back up with Lisa-Lee Cade.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

==Chicago==

Lara woke from a catnap as the sun beamed in on her, and got herself ready for the day. Breakfast would be wonderful, since she had Adam's infinite healthy-and-tasty-food refrigerator. She wanted fully-cooked Chinese food? She got it. Thai? Mexican? Italian? French? Greek? She got it. She must certainly make note to give Adam a sloppy, wet one later, she thought with a mischievous giggle.

Then, imagining Anita's reaction if she ever found out, she decided to give Adam a simple kiss instead.

She went into the front room, and sat on the arm of the chair where the Artist sat. Across from him, Nina teased Clea with playful sexual advances as she tried to shuffle her new Pokemon cards in with her others.

"Who you talking to?" Lara smiled as she watched him type on Anita's laptop.

"Byne." Adam answered, not looking up, "He says that he and Ben and Francesca are with the Mexican Overlady."

Lara leaned in a bit, "Whoa, already? I thought they were gonna give us a signal when they were about to attack."

"Haha...so did I, " Adam smirked, "but, according to this, they're not exactly on the verge of conquest. They dropped by her birthday party for some recon, claiming to be emissaries of Louisiana's Overlady, Lisa-Lee Cade. Now, the Overlady wants them to stay on as servants."

Nina chuckled, "That's gonna suck."

"Not to mention" Anita spoke up from across the room, straightening her glasses, "either they stay on as servants for, basically, ever, or when they escape her, they'll be fugitives. And she rules ALL of Mexico."

Adam and Lara simultaneously grimaced, and Adam started typing fast as the nimbleness of his hands would allow. Those guys would need to start planning their escape plan, and route of exit IMMEDIATELY. Plan of attack would have to wait.